Feature Interview with Len Curtin from George Wright

[Ran Morrissett]

https://golfclubatlas.com/feature-interview/feature-interview-with-len-curtin/

The best way to end this year is with a story of good cheer. For our final Feature Interview of 2020, we head to Boston and its beloved public course, George Wright, and its long time Green Keeper, Len Curtin.

Len grew up several blocks from The Country Club in Jamaica Plains and his father was the manager of the municipal course now known as the Robert T Lynch Municipal (some may recall its name as Putterham Meadows). Len did all sorts of odd jobs, so he basically grew up in golf. At age 13, he starting to caddy at The Country Club. Ultimately, that led to a job on the Grounds Staff, working under Bill Spence. He was involved with the preparation for the 1988 US Open, won by Curtis Strange in a tense duel with Nick  Faldo. He thrived on the 80 to 90 hour work weeks and as he says, ‘I worked my tail off for those 4 years and loved every minute of it. That was the hardest working group of people I ever worked with, and we were like family. That was when I decided I wanted to be a Golf Course Superintendent.’

He bounced to Connecticut for a stint and ultimately went to Portugal (!) to help an aspiring private club grow in cool season grasses for a course near the coast northwest of Lisbon. Then, late in 2003, the Green Keeper job became available at George Wright. With his background, you can imagine Len’s mixed emotions. As he says, ‘Under normal circumstances, I would not have been interested in a Municipal position, as I saw the frustration in my dad managing a muni growing up. During my interviews, I wanted to be clear that the only way I would be interested in the position was if the City had plans to restore the course and invest money into the maintenance operation. I was assured by the Parks Commission that Mayor Tom Menino was planning to do just that.’

Thankfully, Len began at George Wright in March 2004 and steered what has proven to be one of the great transformations in the game. I toured it in 2015 with filmmaker and Ross aficionado Cobb Carlson (October 2014’s Feature Interviewee). Cobb provided me the course’s background and what it meant to so many people in Beantown and New England at large. What I saw was a course in private club conditions coupled with a design that most private clubs would kill for. It was a true revelation with the spirit and heart of the game beating very loudly at George Wright. It was a shoe-in when I later compiled my 147 Custodians. 

This Feature Interview covers that transformation, from a narrow, poorly presented course with patches of bare dirt everywhere to a course that ultimately held the Men’s and Women’s 2018 Massachusetts State Amateur. Len is quick to hand out credit in every direction, including to the late Mayor Tom Menino who stood by his commitment as well as to Mark Mungeam, who was hired on as the architect. However, the focus of this Feature Interview is on Len himself. 

The life of a Green Keeper doesn’t involve rolling over in bed and lazily turning off the alarm at 7am and wondering what you are going to do that day. It is a special breed of person who plants his feet on the floor at 4am with the go button on, knowing that no matter how hard you work, you won’t finish everything that you would like to. That’s for tomorrow. There are no off days. Your course is a living, breathing thing and it needs constant care and supervision. The bond between a Green Keeper and his course can be intense.

That’s this month’s Feature Interviewee and the transformation of George Wright is one of the best golf stories this century. Sadly, nothing is safe from Covid. As Len notes, ‘During the Covid health crisis, our maintenance operation contracted by about 50% staffing. This was not a mandate by the City, but rather mostly a problem finding people that want to go to work during the pandemic. For us, we are operating with a small staff (seven seasonal laborers), so we do the basics to keep the course clean and playable.’ According to Len, he could use 16 to 20 people to get the job done. So that tells you what he and his team are up against even though I doubt that the 40,000 (!) players this year realized that Len prepared the course with half a staff.

One thing you know for sure: Len doesn’t wake up sulking, he wakes and he goes and makes it happen. Every day.  A big round of applause is due and there is no better way to conclude 2020 than that.

[Cob Carlson]

Happy New Year Ran. Allow me to be the icebreaker on this thread. I was hoping that there would be a few more responses before I chimed in, especially since I'm mentioned in your foreward. Seared in my memory is that November day in 2015 when I walked the George Wright Golf Course with you. I had been playing the course for the prior twenty years, and thought I knew the place. But as you took photographs and gushed enthusiastically about the track, you pointed out architectural features and attributes of Ross' design with your eagle eye that I would have never considered. I learned a boatload about my home course that fall day.

Thank you for doing this profile. Superintendents never get enough credit for their never ending and sometimes backbreaking work. Len Curtin is a humble guy. He turned George Wright around 180 degrees with his bare hands. He is a true golf earth angel.

I was lucky enough to have qualified for that 2018 State Amateur at the age of 65, and I can unequivocally say that EVERY top amateur player in the state absolutely raved about the golf course. Sure, you get some locals (and even GCA members) griping about periodic playing conditions, but they are clueless as to what Len has had to do over the years with a skeleton crew. His work has been genius.

Below find a couple of links of Len at George Wright, which appeared on the DVD extras of my Donald Ross film.






https://vimeo.com/146944901

https://vimeo.com/113354969

[Keith Durrant]

Thanks for posting those videos - great to hear about the work to improve the course. I often played George Wright between 2001 and 2004 before the renovation work, and have fond memories as it is a fun course.


i always thought the opening 2 holes and the 18th hole were slightly ill-fitting compared to the holes in between? If i remember the first two holes are gentle starters and wondered it there were options to improve?


Re. the 18th, is it correct that the putting green is the other (i.e. wrong) side of the 18th green from the clubhouse? I was wondering if the hole originally played to the putting green and had been revised? The routing of the stream seems to guard the putting green much better than the 18th green.

[Cob Carlson]

Keith, you are correct. The first two holes are Ross friendly warm up holes, but #1 plays tougher these days with new bunkering on right side. Comes into play on tee shot. I'm not a big fan. First tee has been completely rebuilt and is lengthy and wide.  Hole #2 is a terrific short par four. A new tee has been added which can lengthen the hole considerably.


I have never heard that observation about the 18th green and the practice green. I will have to take a close look next time I visit the course, but my hunch is that if you  made the putting green the 18th, it would be unreachable from most of the left side of the fairway or the left rough on a player's second shot.

[Niall C]

Ran


Thank you for the interview with Len, an enjoyable read.


Len - I don't know if you are reading this but if you are I'd be interested to hear more about the Portugal project, who was the architect ?


Niall

[Adam Lawrence]

Ran


Thank you for the interview with Len, an enjoyable read.


Len - I don't know if you are reading this but if you are I'd be interested to hear more about the Portugal project, who was the architect ?


Niall

That was a Rocky Roquemore project. Quite close to Royal Obidos, Bom Successo, Praia d'el Rey and West Cliffs. Obidos is a beautiful town too.

[PCCraig]

Wonderful interview, Ran.


Kudos to Len for turning George Wright around and giving it the love it deserves over the last 20 years. I played it a handful of times when I was in school in Boston, and admittedly it was often in rough shape. I'm looking forward to getting back sometime to see all of the progress.

[SL_Solow]

Wonderful interview.  Another reminder of how important Superintendents are to the game, particularly in allowing good architecture to shine.  Len, when you were working at Putterham, was Ted Furgol the pro?  He was very kind to me when I was a law student desperate for a break from studies.  Additionally, I am not at all surprised by your description of Mark Mungeam's work.  He assisted us when a microburst tore up our course and in the process helped undo some unfortunate "improvements" to our Allison course.  Mark is one of the nicest and most humble guys one can meet.  Next time I am in Boston when the weather permits, I'll be sure to stop by.  My son played there circa 2011 when he was in law school and was very impressed.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Great story about a course that serves so many people faithfully.

[ward peyronnin]

I took the trouble to induce a friend in Boston to come play GW with me spring 2019. What a hoot. I really do love this course; the variety and scale and routing are really a treat. It was a little rough around the  edges but so what when you can have a golf experience like GW. He was very pleasantly surprised and appreciating me selecting GW despite of the many options we considered;I just had an itch to play there. They had started on a reno of the charming clubhouse so I hope that went well.

Glad this gem has been rebooted on our site

[John Mayhugh]

I didn't see this interview at the end of 2020, but it was a good way to start 2021. Very impressive what can be done with committed leadership and support from above. Good idea to use high school students in the summer.
The resources from the WPA for original construction are staggering.